How to Access Live ADP Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC

The CData ODBC Driver for ADP enables you to access live ADP data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate ADP data into a simple workflow, moving ADP data into a CSV file.

Through optimized data processing, CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live ADP data in Microsoft Power Automate. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power Automate to ADP, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to ADP and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (e.g. SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connect to ADP as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Connect to ADP by specifying the following properties:

• OAuthClientId: The client Id of the custom OAuth application you obtained from ADP.
• OAuthClientSecret: The custom OAuth application's client secret.
• SSLClientCert: Set this to the certificate provided during registration.
• SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password of the certificate.
• UseUAT: The connector makes requests to the production environment by default. If using a developer account, set UseUAT = true.
• RowScanDepth: The maximum number of rows to scan for the custom fields columns available in the table. The default value will be set to 100. Setting a high value may decrease performance.

The connector uses OAuth to authenticate with ADP. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with ADP using the browser. OAuth access can be configured in ADP through ADP API Central. For more information, refer ADP's API Central Quick Start Guide and the OAuth section in CData's Help documentation.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing workflows.

Integrate ADP Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring the DSN for ADP, you are ready to integrate ADP data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

👁 A new flow in Power Automate

In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to ADP, query ADP using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• Connection string: DSN=CData ADP Source

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Open SQL connection' action

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• Get connection by: SQL connection variable
• SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
• SQL statement: SELECT * FROM Workers

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Execute SQL statement' action

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.

• Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
• File path: set to a file on disk
• Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Write to CSV file' action

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the action, click Save.

👁 A configured 'Close SQL connection' action

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

👁 A fully configured workflow

Now you have a workflow to move ADP data into a CSV file.

👁 Application data in a CSV file (Salesforce is shown)

With the CData ODBC Driver for ADP, you get live connectivity to ADP data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article explains how to use the CData ODBC Driver for ADP with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):

• ADP Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect AI
• ADP Data in Power Automate (Online) using CData Connect AI